Washington County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Shawn Ellingson retires after 35 years in law enforcement

WASHINGTON – Washington County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Shawn Ellingson is calling it a career after more than 35 years in law enforcement, all of it spent in Washington County.

Ellingson retired at the end of 2025, having worn many hats during his career split between the Washington Police Department and Washington County Sheriff’s Office. He obtained the ranks of patrol sergeant, investigator, lieutenant, SWAT team leader, and most recently, chief deputy.

Shawn and his wife Stephanie were high school sweethearts in their hometown of Nevada, Iowa. Stephanie went to the University of Iowa while Shawn attended Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State). He graduated in December 1989 and the couple married the next month.

The couple moved to Iowa City, and Stephanie found a job at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Ellingson began looking for a job in law enforcement, and had to choose between a position in Linn County and one with the Washington Police Department. At 22 years of age, Washington County Sheriff Yale Jarvis hired Ellingson as a member of the police department.

INVESTIGATOR

Starting off as a patrol officer, Ellingson said the department was good at encouraging proactive law enforcement by being highly visible in the community. Later, when Ellingson became the department’s investigator, he worked cases through to completion, partnering with other agencies such as the county attorney’s office or Department of Human Services. In some cases, Elllingson was asked to testify in court about the evidence he collected.

“The goal is to put together a tight enough case that there is no reason to go to court, and the suspect realizes they’re caught,” he said. “If you have a very solid case, do it all by the book and followed all the rules, those cases take care of themselves.”

Ellingson had to deal with a number of serious crimes over the years, and he always sought to maintain a professional attitude, trying not to let his personal feelings get in the way. He said that, as long as he did the best he could, he had to accept whatever outcome the court decided.

“You owe it to the victims because you want to do a good job for them, but you have to stay away from getting personally involved,” he said. “I still maintain relationships with people I’ve helped on cases where they were the victim, and also ones where I arrested someone, where they accepted the fact they did wrong and moved on. If you hold grudges as a police officer, you’re going to have a long career.”

CHIEF DEPUTY

Ellingson ran for Washington County Sheriff in 2004 but was defeated by Jerry Dunbar in the primary. Dunbar won the county election and served as sheriff from 2005 until January 2017, when Jared Schneider assumed the role after his election. Schneider and Ellingson had known each other their entire adult lives, and Schneider asked Ellingson to be his chief deputy, which Ellingson accepted. Looking back, Ellingson said his election defeat in 2004 was a “blessing in disguise” even though it stung at the time.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “The way it ended up, it put me in a much better place, a position I was probably better suited for than sheriff.”

Schneider told The Union that when he made the decision to appoint Ellingson as chief deputy in 2016, he knew that Ellingson “was exactly the kind of person we needed to hit the ground running.”

“Shawn has been a steady leader, a trusted partner, and an instrumental part of shaping the Sheriff’s Office into what it is today,” Schneider said. “I am truly thankful for the years he dedicated to this office, his loyalty, and his commitment to serving Washington County. Shawn leaves behind a legacy of leadership and meaningful accomplishments that will benefit this community for many years to come. I wish him nothing but the best in his retirement.”

Ellingson said the role of chief deputy entails a lot of administrative work such as hiring, discipline, ordering equipment, scheduling, searching for grant funding, and so on. He said the sheriff is in charge of those areas, but many of the tasks trickle down to the chief deputy, too.

“It was a positive change for me,” Ellingson said about his move to the sheriff’s office. “I knew all the deputies, and even though I was the new guy in the agency, the transition went really smoothly.”

Elllingson said he maintains a good working relationship with Washington Police Chief Jim Lester, since the two departments use the same software for records management and can view each other’s reports.

RETIREMENT PLANS

As Shawn is stepping down after 35 years in law enforcement, his wife Stephanie also just retired from the University of Iowa after 35 years. The two are not planning a quiet retirement. Quite the contrary, in fact, as they have decided to embark on an ambitious quest called the Great American Loop, a 6,000-mile boat trip around the eastern shore of the United States and through the Erie Canal. The couple will live on their boat for a full year, starting in August with a trek down the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, through the Bahamas, then north to New York City and into the Great Lakes by the following fall.

“A friend of mine learned about it and wanted me to do it with him, so my wife and I decided this would be a great bucket list thing to kick off retirement,” Ellingson said. “There are about 200-250 people or boats who do this loop every year, and they all go at their own pace.”

The Ellingsons just purchased their boat last year, and now they’re going to spend a lot of quality time on it.

Ellingson remarked, “You’ve got to live somewhere, why not on a boat?”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com